Please remember that you should NEVER start a blog for the sake of getting freebies. You should start a blog because you love writing about your chosen topic. The freebies are a perk of being a blogger.

What To Do BEFORE Contacting Brands

Grow your platform – I’m going to be blunt here. No brand will want to work with someone with 40 followers. Whatever your platform you use (Instagram, Facebook, WordPress etc.), you’re going to need to grow it. There are lots of great articles out there for growing your platform, so I’d definitely recommend checking them out first.

Interaction is everything – If you’re a blogger, comment on other blog posts. If you’re an Instagrammer, like and comment on other photos. If you use Pinterest, pin other people’s posts. Not only does this make you look like a real person (and not a bot), but it will also encourage other people to interact with you if you’re interacting with them.Also, some brands will look at interaction levels over follower count. You could have 10,000 followers, but if you have no comments and likes, they’ll run as fast as they can.

Make a media kit – Something that I’d admittedly just done is make my media kit. In simple terms, a media kit is a document with your stats, follower count, rates etc. on. I’m going to be writing a whole dedicated post on how to create a media kit, so I’ll be sure to link that here once it’s live.

Get a few posts published first – A brand isn’t going to go anywhere near you if you’ve only written 4 blog posts before. Aim for around 50+. If 50+ blog posts sounds like a lot of effort, then you shouldn’t be even considering contacting brands.

How To Get ‘In’ With Brands

Basically, you have three options;

Contacting them directly. You can either google ‘[brand] email address’ or have a look for their ‘Contact Us’ page on their website.

Using PR sites. They will take a percentage of the payment though.

it for them to contact you. Just don’t fall for scams where you have to make a £70 purchase from them first though.

Brand Email Structure

1. & 2. are about YOU

‘Dear [name]’ – Try to find out their name and address them directly. If you’re unable to find out the name of the person you’re emailing, either write ‘Dear Sir/Madame‘ or ‘Dear [brand name] team‘.

Introduce yourself – Tell the person who you are and what you do. What topics do you blog about? When did you first start blogging? Let them know.

3. & 4. are about THE BRAND

Ask if they work with bloggers – There is a few different ways to go about this. You could just say something along the lines on ‘I wanted to send over an email to see if you work with [your niche] bloggers at all?’, or you could say something like ‘I’m currently in the process of creating an Autumn look book and wanted to know if you wanted to collaborate on this post?’.

Mention a product of theirs you like/link a blog post that you have mentioned them or their product(s)/thank them for liking an Instagram post of yours. – If you have a blog post that mentions their products or brand, send it them. It shows you already have an interest in them. Also, if they have liked a photo of yours on Instagram, mention this as well. It shows that THEY already have an interest in YOU.

5. – 9. are all the other important bits and bobs

Attach your media kit and tell them it’s attached. Please remember to ACTUALLY attach it though. No point saying you have if you haven’t.

Ask a question. They’re more likely to respond if you ask a question. It could be related to one of their products such as ‘I have oily skin. What toner do you recommend I use alongside your moisturiser?’ or related to your blog post proposal such as ‘If you’re not sold on the idea of an Autumn look book, did you have any other ideas?’

‘I can’t wait to hear back’. This makes it sound like you’re excited (like you should be!) by the possibility of working with them.

Sign off. Nothing fancy. Just your name will do.

Signature. I don’t mean a handwritten signature. I mean the ones you can add to the bottom of your emails. In mine, I have my blog URL and Instagram username.

Pixi By Petra sent me over a personalised Glow Tonic

Remember…

You will see brands saying NO more than YES.

Only work with brands that you are happy to promote. Never promote something because they are giving you an item for free!

Don’t be afraid to ask for payment (it’s a lot easier to ask for their budget when they contact you directly). Why should you put in hours of work into a post for free?

Make sure you keep your media kit updated.

What brands have you worked with? How do you go about contacting brands?